Obama has undermined more individual rights and hoarded more
presidential power than Bush ever did. It's not that he has simply
failed to roll back Bush's anti-terror excesses. (Although that is true,
as well.) It's that Obama has trumped them. More than 10 years after
the September 11 attacks, the White House is still amassing extra
security powers. On December 31 last year, Obama signed the National
Defence Authorisation Act.This act allows the military to arrest and indefinitely
detain anybody within American borders, and without any judicial
authorisation.This power is quite an increase. Under the Bush
administration the military could only legally arrest and detain people
in other countries. American citizens were protected by an 1878 act
banning domestic military deployment. Obama no longer observes this
legal nicety.And Obama has claimed the right to assassinate any
American citizen he deems a terrorist threat, at any time, according to
nothing but his judgment, anywhere in the world. As a former CIA chief
recently pointed out, while the President needs a court order to
eavesdrop on Americans abroad, he does not need a court order to kill
them.

Starting in Russia. Yesterday
it was learned that four Russian bikers were grabbed in central Iraq by
Nouri's security forces, imprisoned and beaten. The four are: Oleg
Kapkayev of Saint Petersburg, Alexander Vardanyants and Maxim Ignatyev
of Vladimir and Oleg Maximov of Tula. Russian Legal Information Agency reports that the wife Oleg Maximo spoke to her husband and he told her they were being moved to another location.

Dmitry Rogozin is the Deputy Premier of Russian Government tasked with the defense and space industry.

That
Tweet reads: 'The Russian bikers detained in Iraq are at the Embassy of
the Russian Federation [in Baghdad]. Motorcylces have not been
returned yet. Thanks to everyone who helped.' The Moscow Times notes,
"[Russian President Vladimir] Putin has been forging good relations
with the biker community in the past two years, riding motorcycles
and attending biker events." RIA Novosti adds,
"The four men will leave for Russia on Saturday morning, the bikers'
lawyer Alexander Orlov, also a member of the Moscow-based motorcycle
club Rolling Anarchy MCC (RAMCC), told RIA Novosti."

As
many are noticing, the US press has ignored the story completely. That
may be due to the fact that there's a detail that's inconsistent -- not
on-message -- with Barack Obama's current campaign for a second term as
US President. Ekaterina Saviba (Gazeta) reports it today:

They
came to Iraq on May 17 and were detained by the Iraqi military on May
20. "Our attempt to go towards Baghdad failed because of Yanks in
Hummers – they didn't let us in. Our guys decided to go round the
American checkpoints and pass north of them," report motorcyclists'
friends on the Russian motorcycling forum Ruriders.ru. "They managed to
ride several dozen kilometers a day, while having long heartfelt
conversations with local authorities, all while the outside temperature
was 42 Celsius."

Again, that was also in yesterday's
reports. The Russian bikers, en route to Baghdad, were unable to
enter the city and had to go around due to Americans blocking them in
Hummers, due to American checkpoints. The 20th was Sunday and the US
may have activated some branch still in Iraq (there are many) to put up
checkpoints in advance of the meet-up in Baghdad. They may have pulled
the units stationed outside of Iraq -- in Kuwait for example -- back in
to set up those checkpoints.

Along
with the usual Russian contingent which staffs the country's Baghdad
embassy, other Russian officials were in the country this week as
Nouri's Iraq hosted talks with Iran about the nuclear program. Ali Arouzi (NECN News -- link is text and video) reports,
"International nuclear talks being held in Baghdad this week with Iran
ended inconclusively with both sides at a stalemate." A stalemate grows
in Nouri's Baghdad? What a complete lack of surprise?

The
ongoing political stalemate in Iraq could see Nouri al-Maliki face a
no-confidence vote that, if successful, would remove him as prime
minister. Alsumaria reports
that the 'Badr brigade' says this would be the worst thing that could
happen. The Badr brigade only split or 'split' from the Islamic Supreme
Council of Iraq when it had to (or risk ISCI being outlawed). They
still take their orders from Ammar al-Hakim and the US has been very
successful in buying al-Hakim's support for Nouri. al-Hakim has already
made statements like those made similar statements out of his own
mouth. Now he uses the Badr brigade as a megaphone in the hopes that
this will give the (false) appearance of a wave of support for Nouri
surfacing.

How did things get to this point?

Iraq's
currently in Political Stalemate II. Political Stalemate I followed
the March 7, 2010 elections in which Iraiqya -- headed by Ayad Allawi --
came in first and Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law came in second.
Despite herculean efforts on Nouri's part -- some legal but most
questionable or outright illegal -- to walk away with the election, he
was runner up. But Nouri wanted to be Miss Iraq, he wanted the crown and
felt he did very well in the swimsuit competition. He had the backing
of the White House and the Iranian government. for his desired second
term as prime minister. The Iraqi Constitution, the election results
and the will of the Iraqi people were all against Nouri; however, Barack
Obama doesn't care about rule of law or democracy. He wants what he
wants when he wants it. And like Bully Boy Bush before him, Barack
packed a chubby for Nouri.

So
for over eight months things were at a standstill. Then in November
2010, the US brokered an agreement among the political blocs. This is
known as the Erbil Agreement (because it was signed off in Erbil). In
exchange for giving Nouri a second term, the US insisted, the blocs
would receive concessions that they wanted. This is the agreement that
was agreed to.

The
Erbil Agreement wasn't about all the political blocs saying, "We don't
want anything. Give Nouri a second term!" To get the blocs on board it
was necessary for them to be offered arrangements that would benefit
them. And with everyone agreeing to the deal -- including Nouri -- and
with the US government brokering it and insisting it was sound, the
political blocs fel tthey deal was solid.

Nouri
used it to become prime minister-designate and then, in December 2010,
beging his second term as prime minister. But that's all that
happened. He refused to implement the agreement. He offered one excuse
after another as is his way. He distracts and stalls and hopes the
other side gives up. He's done that over and over.

By
last summer, the Kurds had enough of the stalling. They publicly
demanded that the Erbil Agreement be implemented. Their call was
quickly joined by Iraqiya and Moqtada al-Sadr. And it wasn't
implemented. And it's still not implemented. April 28th, there was
another Erbil meet-up and among those participating were Moqtada, KRG
President Massoud Barzani, Allawi and Iraqi president Jalal Talabani.
In their meeting they agreed that Nouri needed to implement the
agreement or face a no-confidence vote. They also agreed that Moqtada
al-Sadr's 18-point plan needed to be implemented. Moqtada delivered the
message, implement the Erbil Agreement or face a vote of
no-confidence. As the end of the month gets closer, the number of MPs
reportedly willing to vote out Nouri grows. This week alone, it's
grown from over 163 to 200.

A
list of potential replacements has been named. All on the list come
from the National Alliance (a Shi'ite group which ISCI, State of Law,
Moqtada's bloc and others belong to). Kitabat reminds
that the National Alliance is supposed to be naming a single choice of
who should be Nouri's replacement. But through it all, Moqtada has
repeatedly noted publicly that Nouri can stop this at any point prior to
the vote. All he has to do is implement the Erbil Agreement.

Not
only does he refuse to, the White House refuses to call that out. They
brokered the agreement, they gave the political blocs their word that
the agreement was legal and would hold. The White House brokered the
agreement and swore it would be upheld. They have betrayed the Iraqi
people. These are the betrayals that lead people to stop trusting the
US. These are the type of betrayals the people of Iran spent decades
living with. It's not smart to betray people, it's not smart to make a
promise and not keep it.

And all those promises

That you made me from the start

Were filled with emptiness

From the desert of your heart

Every sweet caress

Was just your second best

Broken promises

-- "All Those Promises," written by Janis Ian, first appears on her Folk Is The New Black